Relations between Russian authorities and the country’s Muslim subjects have been a sensitive issue since Islam appeared within the limits of the Russian Empire. Islam today remains one of the most problematic issues in Russian politics and is the main destabilizing force that could trigger... MORE

June 5, 2012 will likely go down in history as the turning point in the development of Russian parliamentarism. Under Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian State Duma (lower chamber of Parliament) has been a rubber-stamp body in which the United Russia Party and... MORE

Russia’s rulers seem confused on how to stop the continued public anti-Vladimir Putin protests in Moscow, shifting from aggressive intimidation and use of force to attempts to disorient and pacify the opposition by co-opting some of its ideas and leaders into the official fold. The... MORE

Kabardino-Balkaria is likely to face the worst case scenario in the security sphere this summer and fall. The republic’s jamaat seems to have finished regrouping, having recovered following its deep crisis of 2011, when it lost practically all of its top and middle-ranking leadership. After... MORE

On June 4, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev affirmed the new makeup of the government commission for the socio-economic development of the North Caucasus. The commission is comprised of 26 top officials and headed by Medvedev himself. Moscow’s envoy to the North Caucasus, Aleksandr Khloponin, and... MORE

Quietly and unobtrusively, a Russo-Pakistani rapprochement has been developing behind the scenes of world politics for the last two years. On Pakistan’s side, the almost spectacular deterioration of relations with the United States and NATO has led it to seek new friends, especially as the... MORE

At the end of May and the beginning of June, a series of militant attacks shook Dagestan. On May 31, the former police chief of Dagestan’s Untsukul district, Magomed Abdulmalikov, was killed in Buinaksk. Abdulmalikov headed the Untsukul district police until 2006. The district is... MORE

The Russia-EU summit that takes places today (June 4) in Strelna outside St. Petersburg was pre-scheduled as a routine event without any significant predicted achievements. But President Vladimir Putin did not want to start his new term at the helm of Russia’s foreign policy in... MORE

The course of events in the republic of Ingushetia, the smallest and youngest republic of the Russian Federation, has changed dramatically over the past two years. In particular, changes were seen in the confrontation between the armed opposition, the Sharia jamaat and the pro-Moscow authorities,... MORE

On May 21, Russia’s freshly re-minted President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to reform the cabinet. The government now includes the newly-created Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East, which will coordinate the implementation of regional development programs and manage state-owned assets, except... MORE